By Megan Wilson

Before the Community of The Whole meeting on Oct.11, there was a waiver hearing where associate superintendent, Terry Awrey, called for a testimony towards the “Modification of School Code Holiday” that requires another waiver for the school district. These days could either be days off or in service days for teachers and students. Examples of waived holidays would be Veteran’s Day, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday, President Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday, Casmir Pulaski Day, and Christopher Columbus Day.

“We are seeking further approval to include:  Parent-Teacher Conferences, a Teacher In-Service or a Teacher Institute Day, during this same period of time,” said Awrey.

This means that if a teacher or parent wants to plan a parent-teacher conference on one of these waived holidays, they would have to do the meeting the day before or the day after according to Awrey’s proposal. The same goes with Teacher In-Service days and Teacher Institute Days.

After the Board discussed how the district comparatively is with neighboring districts and national standards in regards to test-taking, the Building and Grounds Committee, featuring Paul Troy, Michael Skala (not present), and Anthony Quagliano, discussed the Electricity Procurement Agreement.

The Electricity Procurement Agreement is a proposition from the Administration to assign a Board member the duties of being an “Authorized Agent of The Board of Education” according to a public release from Oct. 11. The duty of this “agent” would be to take charge of buying utilities for the district.

Jeff Sherman, MBA, CEP, Director of Consulting, from APPI Energy, who has consulted for the district before, stated that the fall period of time is an opportune time to purchase energy because it has the lowest rate. If the district started the renewal process by purchasing energy now instead of waiting until their expiration date in May of next year, the current rate would be locked as is. This would create additional monthly savings for the next 12 or more months after the contract expiration date in May of 2013.

Doug Renkosik then gave further information about how there is a local energy retailer that lives in the community. Renkosik then further clarified that this community member’s business would be interested in offering direct energy costs that would be around what the district is looking for to spend. The broker asked for some proposals within 60 days according to Renkosik.

Continuing on with maintenance for the district, the compressor in the central chiller at the high school has failed. Also two of the compressors in one of the chillers at Conley Elementary are showing excessive wear according to Renkosik.

“The cost for the [high school] chiller has doubled over the past couple months,” said Renkosik. “By next year, the cost will increase another 50 to 60 percent.”

According to Renkosik, the state is offering rebates of $40,000 on buying the new and efficient chillers. Without buying a new chiller, the cost to repair one compressor would be about $35,000. The new chillers would be in the $250,000 range.

Renkosik would like the Board’s input on whether or not to just replace the compressors or to upgrade to more efficient chillers and appliances.  A concerned community member informed the Village of Lake in the Hills that the giant recycle bins and dumpsters on the Reed Road Campus are not in mandate with the local jurisdiction code that states dumpers and recycle bins have to be in an enclosed area and out of sight.

“To have the containers in an enclosure, it somewhat defeats the purpose of [getting] the community to participate,” said Renkosik. “Those schools did some research and found out that [the recycle bins] get very, very little revenue. Only like $190 per year for one and $150 per year for the other.”

These recycle bins cost more to have than it does to produce revenue and create public awareness according to Renkosik. The commissioner of Lake in the Hills would like an update within the next 30 days, also stated by Renkosik in regards to the manner.

With a Human Resources update, assistant superintendent of Human Recourses, Jessica Lombard, reminded the Board about the Sick Bank. The Sick Bank allows other employees to donate a minimum of two days of their sick time to the Sick Bank. Those days are then given to those who need and can utilize this time according to Lombard.

The Illinois Association of School Boards sent the Report to the Membership that has 13 new Resolutions, one amended existing position, and 15 Reaffirmation of Existing Positions. The Board will invdividually look over and report their rulings. Those rulings will then be looked over at the Nov. 1, Community of the Whole meeting and ruled over as a group on Nov. 8, a regular meeting, courtesy of district public notice.